1st Peter 5:8-9, “Be
sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh
about, seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist stedfast in the faith...”

Is Your Church Going Purpose Driven? How Can You Tell?

In the past ten years a large percentage of churches in America, and in
other countries, have changed from a traditional New Testament church
model to a contemporary Purpose Driven model, many with sorrowful
results.

Contrary to Purpose Driven Church proponents, millions have been
leaving their churches after the change occurred. It is important that
every church member know if their church is targeted for a Purpose
Driven takeover. Initially, a small clique of church staff, possibly
including the pastor or a new pastor, plans the change without telling
the rest of the church membership. Church Transitions, an associate of
Saddleback Church in California, trains the clique initiating the change
in eight published steps.

The church membership is not to be informed of the transition until
the fourth step. After the sixth step in the process of change, if there
are some in the church who voice concerns, the following is suggested:

Identify those who are resisting the change;

Access the effectiveness of their opposition;

Befriend those who are undecided about the changes;

Marginalize more persistent resisters;

Vilify those who stay and fight;

Establish new rules that will silence all resistance,

This means the church membership is not told until it is too late to
make a difference. In other words the members either accept the changes,
or leave the church, which they may have served and given to build.

Dr. Rick Warren, author of The Purpose Driven Church [PDC] and
The purpose Driven Life has stated: “When you reveal the vision to the
church, the old pillars are going to leave. But let them leave. . . they
only hold things up.”

Dr. Warren is right in one way. It is the senior members of the church
who indeed hold a church up and keep it from falling into apostasy.
While some PDC initiators may not implement the full PDC format,
generally these are the signs indicating that your church may be
targeted for a Purpose Driven Church format:

Change in music to a contemporary rock style.

Removal of hymn books; eliminating the choir.

Replacement of organ and piano with heavy metal instruments.

Repetitive singing of praise lyrics.

Dressing down to casual attire.

Eliminating of business meetings, church committees, council of
elders, board of deacons, etc.

The pastor, or a new leader with a few assistants, usually four,
takes charge of all church business.

A repetitive 40-day Purpose Driven Church study program
stressing psychological relationships with each other, the
community, or the world, begins.

Sunday morning , evening, and/or Wednesday prayer meetings are
changed to other times; some may even be eliminated.

Sunday School teachers are moved to different classes, or
replaced by new teachers more sympathetic with the changes being
implemented.

The name “Sunday School” is dropped and classes are given new
names.

Crosses and other traditional Christian symbols may be moved
from both the inside and outside of the church building. The pulpit
may also be removed.

In accordance with Dr. Warren’s instructions, new version Bibles
are used; or only verses flashed on a screen are referenced during
regular services.

Purpose Driven Church films purchased from Saddleback, precede
or are used during regular services.

The décor, including the carpets, may be changed to eliminate
any resemblance to the former church.

The word “Church” is often taken from the name of the church,
and the church may be called a “campus.” Denominational names may
also be removed.

An emphasis on m ore fun and party sessions for the youth.

Elimination of altar calls or salvation invitations at the close
of the services.

The elimination of such words as “unsaved,” “lost,” “sin,”
Hell,” “Heaven,” and other gospel verities from the pastor’s
messages.

The reclassification of the saved and lost to the “churched” and
“unchurched.”

The marginalizing, or ostracizing, of all who are not avid
promoters of the new Purpose Driven Program.

Closed meetings between the pastor or chosen staff members
without any reports made to the general membership.

Open hostility to members who do not openly embrace the new
program, or who may have left for another church.

What You Can Do

If your church is in the initial stages of change (music or the first
40-day program), your church could be saved by talking to other church
members, and with activist intervention by 10-20 percent of the
membership. If nothing is done at this early stage, then by the time the
program advances to step four, there is little that can be done except
look for another church. Your church has become a Purpose Driven entity
in association with Saddleback Church of Orange County or Willow Creek
of Chicago.

You must educate yourself, and others, so that you can mobilize the
membership to effectively resist. “For God hath not given us the spirit
of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (2 Tim. 1:7).

Dr. Warren in his world peace plan has stated intentions of sending
one billion Christians into the world to eliminate human problems. The
number one characteristic of a cult is a messianic, charismatic leader.

Purpose Driven Church books are published by Zondervan, one of Rupert
Murdoch’s many properties, including 175 newspapers and international
television and satellite communications, including in China. Various
reports indicate he is building for his third wife, Windi Deng, a
22,000-foot mansion in the Forbidden City in Beijing.

Dr. Warren stated on May 23, 2005, at the Pew Forum on Religion and
Public Life: “The word ‘fundamentalist’ actually comes from a document
in the 1920s called the Five Fundamentals of the Faith. And it is a very
legalistic, narrow view of Christianity.”

The five fundamentals of the faith to which DR. Warren objected are:

The inerrancy and full authority of the Bible

The virgin birth and full Deity of Jesus Christ

The bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead

Christ’s atoning, vicarious death for the sins of the world

The literal second coming of Jesus Christ

Are we to believe that Christians who hold to these basic foundational
doctrines of the Christian faith are narrow and legalistic? According to
the New Testament definition, those who believe otherwise are not
Christians.

Phooey on Rick Warren's
heretical Purpose Driven Life. In sharp contrast, the Bible
teaches living a Spirit-led life in obedience to the holy Scriptures.
Jesus Promised that the Holy Spirit would guide us into all truth (John
16:13); not Rick Warren. Beware my friend, beware, for Rick Warren is a
wolf in sheep's clothing corrupting the world's churches today by the
droves. We have an example to follow in the New Testament Book of Acts
concerning the early Church. Acts 20:20 says they went publicly,
door-to-door preaching the Gospel. They had no church building with
stained-glass windows, plush carpeting, neither padded pews. The early
believers met in each other's homes.

To start a Purpose Driven Church or change to one with the full
knowledge and consent of the membership is one thing, but to practically
steal a church from Christians who have given and served to build it
without their knowledge or consent is quite another.

1st Peter 5:8-9, “Be
sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh
about, seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist stedfast in the faith...”